CD pricing

R.A.B. Rip a Brit its called.

It's all those yuppies chucking twenty quid notes away in Our Price - thereby telling the marketeers what you're willing to pay! makes ya wanna spit!

Though not a rule of thumb I find UK CDs generally inferior to what can be bought abroad for less.

pah!

Harry

Pah indeed Harry.

EU made discs are crap and expensive. I get most of mine from the States.

My favourite supplier is Djangos.

The discs are cheaper (even with postage) and sound better. You just have to wait for them.

Japanese made discs are better still and available from 101cd.

Just do a search for a specific artiste and click on the Jap flag to see what's available.

This looks interesting. It works out to be $6.66 a CD.

Cheap CDs for members

Thanks J.N. I'm always on the look out for US suppliers. I might give Djangos a try.

Cheers

Harry

I knew that we were being ripped off but please dont tell me they sound crapper when manufactured in the UK too??? Why?
Cheers
Simon

knew that we were being ripped off but please dont tell me they sound crapper when manufactured in the UK too?

I never used to believe this, but came to the same result when I compared a couple of doubles I had. Still skeptical and thinking I might just be imagining things, I asked friends to do some blind tests with me; the tests showed that there are indeed differences.

Mostly, US pressings seem to be better, but I also preferred the EU pressing once (second Afro Celt Sound System).

I once e-mailed Bob Katz (US mastering guru) abut this and he reckons it's down to the individual pressing plant's standards and performance. Apparently, some pressing plants add compression even if explicitly told by the mastering engineer not to do so.

Thomas

Some pressing plants add compression even if explicitly told not to!??!?!? AGGGGGGHHHHH

Because of my enthusiasm for ebay I ended up unknowingly buying a few CD's I already had. When I sat down with a friend of mine to compare a UK & Italian pressing of a Lenny Kravitz CD, the UK version was miles better. I guess they all vary.

So where does amazon fit into all this, quality and price wise?

Hi,
I use amazon market place quite alot, especially for 2nd Hand Cd's. I check the feedback obviously but have not gone wrong yet...

andy c!

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Originally posted by FISBEY:
So where does amazon fit into all this, quality and price wise?

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They seem to vary widly, sometimes they have some real bargains, sometimes they're way OTT.

I do tend to find HMV consistently overpriced, to the point where I wonder why anyone would ever buy anything from them.

Personally I was told about www.secondspin.com a while back and haven't looked back, dirt cheap and great service, only snag is being exclusively s/h sometimes you have to wait a while to get everything you want in one go.

Paul

I believe there's a strong tendency for US sourced CDs to sound better, esp with respect to compression. I don't know why this is and I don't know how much is my imigination but with exchange rates as they are it's not difficult to cover all the price and quality bases.

Cheers

Harry

With regards to the original posting i couldnt agree more. I was in Bristol the weekend and wanted to pick up Supertramps greatest hits, both Virgin and HMV were selling it for £15.99, and its only a single CD, not even a double. I walked out without the cd in disgust - £15.99 for a single cd is a complete rip off, NO excuses, i am not going to start talking about the indusrty deserving people copying cds - but there is just no justification for that price. They are gready and need to reasses their businness principals.

Can anyone explain why a CD from the USA or Japan for that matter can sound better than a CD from the UK. What is it that determines quality in terms of CD production or is it just the imagination

Jack

I shouldn't be adding to the chorus of complaints about HMV's prices as I did pick up a couple of decent CDs for a fiver in their summer sale. Like you though, Craig, I usually walk out empty handed. If you still want Supertramp's Greatest Hits though, have you tried 'play.com.' Its there for £9.49 ... they don't charge vat on top of the advertised price and it'll arrive in a couple of days post free.

Call me old fashioned but I would still prefer to go shopping for music in the time honoured way. It just means a lot of getting fed up with HMV, Virgin et al. If you can find a 'Fopp' though (I go to their Leamington shop whenever I visit my home town) you'll always find a good selection of CDs for fiver.

Chaps

The power is in your hands.

Do not shop at Virgin, HMV or WH Smith. They charge top dollar. If we boycotted then, as I do, they would soon drop their prices.

There is Tescos and lots of internet sites, use them.

Regards

Mick

And the record industry wonder why the kids of today are downloading their music.

Mike

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Do not shop at Virgin, HMV or WH Smith. They charge top dollar. If we boycotted then, as I do, they would soon drop their prices.

There is Tescos and lots of internet sites, use them.

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If you don't use these and are happy to see no specialist record retailer in 90% of towns then fine, don't bother. the fact is that HMV/Virgin are probably the only specialist option in many towns. I use all High street retailers (and the internet) and rarely leave empty handed. Most new releases can be had for £10-£12 from these places and there is always some sort of sale on in one or more of these with large selections of £5-£10 product. Fopp is little better or worse than HMV or Virgin, it has a good selection of titles for £5 and £7 but much back catalogue stuff is £15 and many new releases are more than HMV/Virgin.

On my trips to Manchester I usually go around HMV, Virgin, Fopp and MusicZone and can almost allways get a new release I'm after for ~£10 and always pick up several sale items. I then often visit Picadilly records and a few of the other small independants but I buy far more from the first 4.

I don't really know what you're all moaning at. Back catalogue CD's were £16 in HMV/Virgin 7 or 8 years ago. New CD's were £10 15 years ago. I'd say we've never had it so cheap.

Greeny,

Just because they were £15 8 years ago doesnt make it right. The buyer is much more knowledgable these days, knows how much a blank CD costs (about 15p), knows how much they can pay by shopping on the internet (usually less than £10) so how the hell can the likes of Virgin justify another 50% on the price tag. Its a bloody rip off. £16 for a cd worth 15p just doesnt add up, and as other people have said, is it really surprising people download/copy cds (i am not advocating piracy, but it does happen). I do believe that if reatilers offered better value then more people would buy CDs. I certainly feel this way. If all cds were priced under £10 i wouldnt have a problem, but why should one cd cost £8 and another £16 - surely give or take a few pence they all cost the same to make. Then there is the old favourite why do we pay upwards of £10 in this country for a CD when in the USA for instance they are generally cheaper - yet another rip off.

"£16 for a cd worth 15p just doesnt add up"

A rather simplistic way of looking at it, is it not. How much are you prepared to pay for a book which by your reckoning is only about thruppence worth of paper?

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Just because they were £15 8 years ago doesnt make it right

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Makes it more right now though than 15 years ago, as I said, we've never had it so cheap.

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Just because they were £15 8 years ago doesnt make it right. The buyer is much more knowledgable these days, knows how much a blank CD costs (about 15p), knows how much they can pay by shopping on the internet (usually less than £10) so how the hell can the likes of Virgin justify another 50% on the price tag

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As I said, I don't think they do. Most new releases are £9-11 online as apposed to £10-13 on the high street not a huge discrepancy.

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£16 for a cd worth 15p just doesnt add up,

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Err I assume you know how the record industry works, you are not paying the money for the physical CD!!!!

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but why should one cd cost £8 and another £16

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Market forces.

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surely give or take a few pence they all cost the same to make.

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Absolutely not.

The costs vary massively, depending on how much goes to the artist/publisher, how many are produced or sold (hence printing and production costs cheaper per CD etc)

I always now check Amazon and click on their "new and used" option agianst any title. I've bought many CD's this way and they generally have what I want, especially back catalogue at very low prices, I don't buy the used only the new CD's. They come from all over, many from the USA (Caiman in Florida are excellent and provide a very reliable service) the shipping is £1.24 per CD and they always send them separately so you don't get caught for VAT and duty on multiple orders.

I ordered a 4CD Yardbirds set and it cost me less than £10 it was despatched from Germany.

Try it, it works.

Chris

When CDs first came in they were priced at a premium as the punters replaced their 'inferior' vinyl collections.

Once economies of scale kicked in did they get cheaper? NO!

Prices have only dropped for chart material because of the internet and the supermarkets entering the market.

I just used J.N.'s djangomusic.com and bought my niece's christmas presents. (trying to educate them about better singers than what the kiddies are listening to, and my sister likes the trip with the oldies) Liked the website and will do it again.

Someone on here posted a good used place in the UK for used CDs as I'm looking for Pentangle and Jon Renborn in particluar. Any of you have an idea where I might find them? sorry don't have the foggiest about the name.

glenn

Life is analogue